MONTREAL - There have been some justified knocks on the Montreal Canadiens over the last few years.

Too small up front to make a difference when it came to the heavy slogging and getting to the net was one criticism.

Another: awful when it came to 5-on-5 on play.

They’ve only been in the top half of the league in even-strength scoring twice in the salary cap era (13th in 2007-08 and sixth in the 48-game season last year) and have been pretty awful this season until recently.

After Saturday night’s 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings, in which they survived a Wings rally in the third that saw Detroit tie the game 3-3 after trailing 3-0 - they have outscored the opposition 22-11 at 5-on-5 at even strength in their last five games. They’ve gone 4-1, putting themselves in good shape to earn home-ice advantage in their opening round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (the Bolts lost Saturday night, giving the Habs a four-point advantage with Tampa holding a game in hand).

Coincidentally, that strong 5-on-5 play coincides with the last time their once powerful power play scored a goal (now in an 0-for-17 funk).

“Our emphasis was to get better there (5-on-5),” said Canadiens captain Brian Gionta, who scored two even-strength goals Saturday night. “There’s parts of the game that kind of go up and down whether it’s power play or killing penalties, but 5-on-5 has got to be consistent and we’re trying to get back on track here towards the end of the season.”

Are the Habs doing anything different?

“We want to pressure the puck, but it’s nothing different than we’ve been trying to do all year,” said Gionta.

The good stretch at even-strength has allowed the Canadiens to almost get to breaking even at 5-on-5 (0.96% and 17th in the league).

The Canadiens ability to get to the net was what won them the game against the Wings Saturday night.

Gionta (his second of the game and 17th of the season) and Alex Galchenyuk scored at 13:13 and 15:40 respectively after the Wings had tied the game. Detroit had dominated the game in terms of puck possession and shots, but couldn’t beat Montreal goaltender Carey Price until the early in the third. Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk scored on the power play five minutes into the period and Luke Glendening made it 3-2, 36 seconds later. Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall tied it at 10:44 on the power play.

“We certainly lost some momentum towards the end of the second and into the third. We let them get back into the game, but we showed a lot of poise sticking with it and not getting rattled by it,” said Gionta.

Both Canadiens goals to deliver the win came off the rush and were the product of the Canadiens going hard to the net, something their smaller size in past years hadn’t been possible on a regular basis.

On Gionta’s goal, Rene Bourque went hard to the blue paint, drawing the attention of Wings defenceman Brian Lashoff and Gionta’s shot went off the pad of Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and off Lashoff’s skate.

Galchenyuk was credited with the fifth goal when he was standing in the blue paint behind Gustavsson and had a shot by Tomas Plekanec bounce in off his chest, a goal that survived video review.

Michael Bournival, Max Pacioretty (with his team-leading 39th goal) and Gionta had given the Habs a 3-0 lead halfway through the game despite being outshot 27-17 through two periods.

Pacioretty, bidding to become the first Hab to score 40 goals since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94, scored a beauty, powering his way by three Wings to beat Gustavsson.

It was another even-strength goal from a guy wearing red, white and blue powering to the net.

It will be interesting to see if it can hold when things get cranked up in the playoffs.